April 18, 2006 - Spokesman-Review (WA)

Activists Also Get A Hearing Downtown

By Jody Lawrence-Turner, Staff writer

(Note: The entire home
office staff of the November Coalition, all dressed as prisoners,
joined with hundreds of other protesters outside the Davenport
Hotel during VP Cheney's visit. Cheney was in town for a fund-raiser
for fellow Republican and war hawk Mike McGavick.)

Their signs, scrawled and printed on poster board, cloth and
college-ruled notebook paper, covered the gamut.

"We Believe in Telling the Truth in this Washington,"
"Got Integrity?" "Impeach, Convict, Imprison,"
"No Blood for Oil," "Who Would Jesus Bomb?"
"Health care, not Warfare" and "Peace Not War"
were just a few of the messages displayed by the nearly 300 protesters.

The most common theme was anti-war.

"If we can get diplomacy, we can solve everything else,"
said Avery Rendon, one of about 100 members of the Peace and
Justice Action League of Spokane at the protest. "Bring
them home," Rendon shouted.

Protesters stood shoulder-to-shoulder on all four corners
of Sprague and Lincoln while, near the front doors of the hotel,
about 23 people held up signs supporting GOP Senate candidate
Mike McGavick. Patrons inside the Davenport peered from second-story
windows as the crowd chanted: "Bush and Cheney got to go,
hey, hey, go home."

While some protesters' signs crossed the line between statement
and trash-talk, the crowd remained well-behaved.

Spokane Valley resident Mary Colby brought her sons to the
protest. With hand-painted T-shirts that read "End the War"
and sporting hunter-orange pants, Simon and Colin Colby, twin
2-year-olds, watched from their stroller.

Hunter orange was a popular color outside the Davenport. People
wore orange hats, shirts, and vests to mock Cheney's accidental
shooting of a hunting companion.

"This is a pretty good turnout for Spokane given the
conservative district," said Emily Walters, co-president
of Gonzaga University's young Democrats club. Walters said she
was there to show her party's objection to the use of taxpayers'
money on a campaign fundraiser for McGavick.

Two students from North Idaho College stood outside the Davenport
to protest Cheney "using his position of power as a position
of profit," said 23-year-old Ryan Robinson.

He and a fellow student, 20-year-old Kathleen Kelley, weren't
surprised to see the large crowd. "Even Republicans are
mad," Kelley said.

"It's an unjust, unnecessary war. People are dying for
no reason," said Albert Penta, a retired postal worker from
Monroe, Wash. "It had nothing to do with 9/11 or protecting
America. It's folly of the worst kind."

Vietnam veteran John McKee was there to show support.

"He's second in charge of the military," said McKee,
who lives in Lynnwood, Wash. "I want the troops in the field
to know that I'm here, I believe in them, the mission, and I
believe in the president."

As Cheney's Spokane visit neared its end, protesters shifted
from Lincoln and Sprague to Post and First Avenue, in hopes of
making their presence more visible to the vice president during
his departure.

"I don't care if I see him," said Scott Weston of
Hauser Lake, Idaho. "I just want him to know we're here."

The crowd booed when the motorcade flipped a U-turn and avoided
them altogether.

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